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Jessie Ware

Amoeba Hollywood - January 22nd @ 6:00pm

English singer/songwriter and Mercury music prize nominee performs live at Amoeba and signs copies of her EP, If You’re Never Gonna Move – available January 15th at Amoeba. Fans must purchase the EP at Amoeba, Hollywood to attend the signing after her performance (retain receipt).

A regular collaborator with British producer/DJ/artist SBTRKT, Jessie Ware's distinct vocals are highlighted against production combining electronic, pop, trip hop and soul.

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For Jessie Ware singing is the easy part. Uncannily beautiful vocals have been pouring out of this London native since she was a kid. It’s the path from Girl With That Voice to full-fledged pop star – as she’s become back home in England in the last year - that’s proved trickier. In the wake of ecstatic advance American press, Ware prepares to release her US debut, the If You’re Never Gonna Move EP on January 15th followed by her full-length, Devotion later in the spring. As she turns her full attention to the States, that transition from one identity to another is still very much on her mind. “When I was little I used to watch this show Stars In Their Eyes,” she recalls. “A normal woman from some nowhere town would go through these doors come back looking like Shirley Bassey. One time someone did Maria McKee singing ‘Show Me Heaven,’ from that Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder and I remember thinking: that would be my song. It’s always been about acting a bit, hiding behind a wig or good makeup or shoulder pads. For me, that transformation is everything.”

Ware started singing at school, inspired by the timeless purity of her mother's classic records. Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald singing Cole Porter was an early love as was the transporting magic of musicals. With a bit of classical training under her belt and that innate desire to become someone else through performance, Ware arrived at University and promptly suffered a devastating crisis of confidence. "I didn't think it was ever going to be possible," she says, explaining why she put her dreams of being a singer on hold. "It always broke my heart a bit. I couldn't even do it casually because it made me feel too sick to only half do it."

Convinced her career as a singer was over before it began, she studied English Literature and after graduation pursued journalism. "I wanted to be a football reporter," she recalls. “I’m interested in other people.” Fascination with other people is not a quality you find in many pop stars. In fact, some would consider it a liability. But when Ware’s old friend Jack Penate offered her the chance to tour America as his backup singer, she discovered she had more of that sink or swim grittiness than she initially thought. “I quit my job and got in the van,” she recalls with a chuckle. “It was a very wrecked van and it wasn’t very glamorous but it felt like the American dream. I was living the dream, just, even driving through Montana. I was like: this ….is…. amazing! I’m a singer and I’m in America!”

In the States, Jack's guitarist introduced her to renowned underground producer SBTRKT and they collaborated on a track, “Nervous,” which showcased Ware’s big voice and made a significant impact on the UK club scene. A second one-off track, “Valentine,” recorded with another of the UK dance scene’s key players, Sampha, displayed the sweeter, more delicate side of Ware’s talent. The one-two punch of these tracks was enough to score the singer a UK record deal. The humble little girl from South London was on her way.

Ware was getting the hang of pop stardom but the haze of insecurity that had initially plagued her still hovered. Sure, she could work with other brilliant artists, but could she really stand center stage and belt out a full set of her own tracks? "I needed to take a step back from being a dance vocalist," she explains. "As much as I love that scene, I wanted to set that apart and learn how to be a classic songwriter." So she retreated into the studio with a slew of collaborators and found her voice, which led to her androgynous dame look, which led to her now easeful-seeming confidence onstage. “The singer turned heads with her understated style,” Rolling Stone gushed, calling Ware’s debut a “set of elegant synth ballads,” in which she “confides hopes and heartbreaks in tones that command attention.”

Ware’s sound blends the body-moving abandon that for thirty years has propelled pop stars from Madonna to Lady Gaga off the dance floor and onto the radio with the serene elegance Ware first discovered spinning her mom’s Sinatra. "I wanted to combine electronic with a more classic songwriting," she explains. "I didn't want it to feel too 'of now', so that's why I went back to beats and grooves of things I loved before, like Prince and Chaka Khan and Grace Jones. I wanted to make downer R&B - songs that are beautiful and bittersweet, like Sade. It was just about mixing it up in the right way."

The glittery, downbeat shimmer of “Devotion,” represents the first moment in the songwriting process where she truly felt like a singer. “I could finally express myself in the way that I wanted, with the music I wanted." The flirty swing of “Sweet Talk” captures the ecstatic terror of being reckless with a new love. And the title track, with its layering of guttural samples and Ware’s confectionary vocals displays this artist’s signature blend of grit and elegance. Ware’s intention to warm up dance music has already been recognized stateside, months before any music was formally released. The New York Times, drawing attention to the fact that Ware’s debut is “by no means a dance album” noted that it nonetheless “has the outline of club music on it.” They went on the praise Ware’s debut as “sensuous and stirring.”

Oftentimes even the brashest of British artists lose their mojo a bit when confronted with America. Not Ware. Now that she’s gotten a taste for pop stardom, she’s going big. "I want to be a pop star, in the classic sense, like Annie Lennox, or Sade, or Whitney," she says. But behind the hoop earrings and shoulder pads are still signs of that pragmatic girl who thought she’d spend her life writing about other people. “The whole timeless thing, it’s quite ambitious,” she muses. “Mostly, I just want to make things I can be proud of if it all goes tits up.”